halla steinunn stefánsdóttir
EINKOFI composer - ALDA
Halla Steinunn Stefánsdóttir is a musician, composer, curator and artist-researcher active in the field of electroacoustic music, sound art, and creative AI for musical performances. Her music making and research is driven by an interest in the interplay between humans and more-than-humans, exploring what types of agency and sociality emerge from these relationships. Stefánsdóttir’s music making has been described as “hymn to the natural world”, whose sound is “riveting and wondrous” (VAN magazine) and hailed as "music of great poetry” (ComposHer) and even "the Ginnungagap out of which all music springs" (Fréttablaðið). She has been the artistic director of Nordic Affect since its inception in 2005. Her work with the ensemble has earned her Iceland Music Awards, alongside a Nordic Council Music Prize nomination. In addition, she was nominated in 2022 for an Iceland Music Award as soloist of the year.
Halla Steinunn's playing and works are featured on albums released by Øra Fonogram, Sono Luminus, Brilliant Classics, Bad Taste Records, Musmap, Tally, and Carrier Records. These recordings have earned spots on numerous best-of-the-year lists, including those of the Chicago Reader, The New Yorker, Boston Globe, I Care if You Listen, and Second Inversion, along with accolades such as The Iceland Music Award and the Swedish Manifest Prize. Her latest release, Rökkur, created with Nordic Affect and Maja S. K. Ratkje, made the best-of-the-year list of the the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter and AnEarful and was nominated for the Norwegian Grammy (Spellemann Prisen) as Contemporary Album and Performance of the Year. Her compositional output has spanned everything from electro-acoustic compositions to sound and media installations. Amongst recent work is To light, commissioned by The Icelandic National Broadcasting Service for a European Broadcasting Union Christmas Music Day. Upcoming projects include concerts in Iceland and Poland, a premiere of a co-composition with Kent Olofsson for Skálholt Summer Concerts, a work for the Natural History Museum in Iceland and participation in the Moving Classics: Sonic Bridges project, produced by Einkofi, co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union.
She is currently a co-editor of a special issue in Seismograf, on “Sounds and More-than-Human Worlds.” Stefánsdóttir holds a PhD in artistic research from Lund University and received the “Oscar II:s stipendium” prize for her dissertation. She conducted in 2024 a three-month postdoctoral fellowship at the ERC funded Intelligent Instrument Lab, led by Thor Magnusson at The University of Iceland.